M. Bison
M. Bison, known as Vega in Japan, is one of the primary bosses and antagonist of the Street Fighter fighting game series. History Next to nothing is known about Bison's youth and his early years, even as to when he was born (most game manuals list his birth year as unknown), but he appears to be in his late 40's to mid 50's although he could be much older - some speculate he is above the 100's despite his not-so-old appearance. His first appearance, chronologically speaking, was in Street Fighter Alpha, as the head of an elusive criminal and military organization known as Shadaloo. Along with his aspirations for world conquest, M. Bison had been working on perfecting a lethal and deadly energy that would exponentially increase his fighting ability, an inherently evil energy he refers to as "Psycho Power". During the events of Street Fighter Alpha, Shadaloo came to the attention of Interpol, which sent Chun-Li (an operative with a personal vendetta against the crime lord, who had killed her father) to thwart Bison's plans. Chun-Li and M. Bison eventually confronted each other and battled. M. Bison defeated Chun-Li and then escaped on his helicopter while mocking her and promising to kill her in the same manner he killed her father if she confronts him again. During the events of Alpha or Alpha 2, M. Bison also came into conflict with Rose, a mysterious woman who wielded Soul Power, the opposite of Bison's Psycho Power. This fact and the fact that her quest was to stop any and all of M. Bison's evil plans indicate the intricate connection between the two, and would later be revealed in Street Fighter Alpha 3. By the time of Street Fighter Alpha 3, the Psycho Power began exceeding the limits of his body. Having predicted this event, M. Bison had his scientists engineer a body that he could transfer his essence to, but that body Cammy escaped from Shadaloo's conditioning. M. Bison then turned his sights to Ryu, one of the most powerful fighters in the world, and the personal nemesis of Bison's right-hand man Sagat. Bison defeated and captured Ryu and subjected him to intense psychological conditioning; when Sagat objected, M. Bison turned Ryu on him, telling him he could finally have his rematch. While Sagat battled Ryu, Ryu's friends Ken and Sakura fought M. Bison. With Sagat's urging, Ryu came to his senses and forced M. Bison to retreat to the Psycho Drive, which restored his power. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, USAF officers Charlie and Guile are on a mission to stop the dictator from using his new creation, a satellite (featured in Street Fighter Alpha 3), which can enhance his Psycho Power abilities. Guile and Charlie are joined by Chun-Li, and the three of them battle M. Bison. In order to take down Shadaloo's leader, Charlie keeps fighting him while the base is set to explode, and eventually sacrifices his own life. M. Bison's soul, however, ended up surviving the explosion and took control of Rose. It is revealed that, while trying to master Psycho Power, Bison had to expel all the humanity and good in his soul to accommodate and supplant the intense energy the power gives him, and that Rose is actually the formation of all of M. Bison's good energy. He stayed inside of Rose's body until his Shadaloo scientists could forge a new body for him, the body seen in Street Fighter II. This body, however, was much weaker, since, having inhabited his "good side"'s soul for a period of time, he retained both his good and evil energies as he transferred to his new body, thus making his Psycho Power considerably less effective. M. Bison held the second Street Fighter tournament to get revenge against the people who had destroyed the Psycho Drive. His new body was much weaker than the previous, but he was still very powerful. In the end, he was destroyed by Akuma, who killed him with the Shun Goku Satsu and sent his soul to hell to be destroyed. Bison was not heard of in Street Fighter III, and Chun-Li's mid-boss dialogue with Urien in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike suggests that Shadaloo was destroyed. Appearance {C}His general attire consists of a red military uniform with large silver shoulder plates, wrist bands, and shin guards; on his cap is the skull insignia of his crime syndicate known as Shadaloo (sometimes referred to as Shadowlaw or Shadowloo). Bison's eyes lack both pupils and irises (exception in "Street Fighter II"), leaving them a ghastly white color. He sports a dark colored cape in the Alpha series, in which he appears with his original body. In Street Fighter II and the Capcom vs SNK series, he appears with a much slimmer body, and removes his cape before battle. Shin M. Bison Shin M. Bison is an alternate version of M. Bison with more powerful abilities, fewer weaknesses, and often a different costume. Much like Shin Akuma, this modified version of the character is meant to portray Bison when he chooses to unleash the true depths of his power. The only canon appearance of Shin M. Bison takes place in Street Fighter Alpha 3 (often referred to as Final M. Bison) but he has also appeared in both Street Fighter EX2 Plus (referred to as Bison II), and Street Fighter EX3 as a secret, computer-only boss character. When fighting in this more powerful form, Bison’s abilities differ from game to game. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, his fierce punch attacks send out a wave of energy and his psycho crusher super combo fills the entire screen with a devastating streak of blue flames. This improved psycho crusher is much faster and stronger than its normal counterpart, cannot be blocked in the air, and does severe damage even when blocked. In Street Fighter EX 2 Plus and Street Fighter EX 3, Shin M. Bison appears with pale, indigo-tinted skin and a white uniform. In both of these games, he has an infinite amount of SC energy, the ability to cancel most of his moves, and three greatly improved psycho cannon projectile attacks. Shin M. Bison also tends to be far more aggressive than his normal counterpart in all the titles he appears in, and makes frequent use of his teleporting ability. Gameplay M. Bison is a "charge character" in that, his special moves require that you hold in directions for a couple seconds before pulling a move off. One of his special moves is the "Psycho Crusher" which sends him flying in the direction of his opponent with a damaging spin. The "Scissors Kick" allows him to do a forward flip which will knock the opponent away. With the "Head Stomp", Bison jumps into the air and homes into the opponent, bouncing off their heads in which he can follow up and smack them with his own hands. In the Alpha series, he gained new moves such as the "Psycho Shot" which was his very own projectile and a couple abilities which allowed him to teleport and hover in the air. His Super Attacks contain a more powerful version of the Psycho Crusher (In Alpha 3, it is his most powerful attack taking up the whole screen when used) and the Knee Press Nightmare, which is a more varied version of the Scissors Kick. Special Attacks *'Psycho Shot - '''Bison winds up and tosses out a fireball that curves. Light Punch starts out high and then quickly curves down. Hard Punch starts out low and then curves up, which will sail over most character's heads from full-screen's distance. *'Psycho Field - Bison charges up a ball in your hands that travels forward and then rapidly expands to 3 huge circles, which are fairly difficult to avoid. Light Punch travels forward to about sweep distance before expanding, Hard Punch goes a bit further than 3/4th's of the screen. Until the ball gets bigger, it won't actually hit your opponent, it will simply pass through them. Unfortunately you cannot use the Hard Punch ball to cross up your enemy. *'''Knee Press - '''Also known as the '''Scissors Kick, Bison performs a forward somersault with his legs outstretched, kicking the opponent up to twice. The distance and speed at which it travels depends on the strength of the kick. When properly spaced to do only one hit, they can be quite safe and useful in pin down strategies. They also are quite useful for scoring knockdowns if opponent tries to counter standing kicks or do low attacks. *'Head Stomp - '''Bison leaps into the air and lands perfectly on his opponent's head, in a standing position with his arms folded. He then almost immediately backflips off again, and can optionally be followed up with a '''Skull Diver' by pressing punch some time after jumping off the opponent's head, but before he lands. **'Skull Diver - '''When this move is performed, Bison will angle himself forward as he descends and, if timed and aimed correctly, strike the opponent with a Psycho Power-infused fist. The timing window and hit box for this second attack can be quite strict depending on the game version, but it can take an opponent - expecting Bison to rebound far away after the Head Stomp- completely off guard. *'Devil Reverse - 'Executed by charging down and then pressing up and punch, Bison leaps into the air and towards the opponent. If no further input is made, Bison simply lands in front of his opponent; if, however, punch is pressed while in mid-air, he performs the "reverse": suddenly changing direction in mid-air, flipping upside-down and throwing a Psycho Power-infused punch toward the opponent while descending. *'Warp - 'Bison's teleport move, Bison will disappear and 4 Bisons will appear around of the opponent, one of which is the real Bison, depending on which button is used. Assist Attacks Hyper Combos *'Psycho Crusher - 'Bison's signature attack that is in all of his appearances, M. Bison charges his right hand with Psycho Power, then surrounds himself with Psycho Energy while flying spinning towards his opponents. *'Knee Press Nightmare - 'Bison does a fake Teleport which leaves two M. Bisons on the screen, and both Bisons hit their opponent with two Scissor Kicks followed by a slide kick. This can be pretty tricky for players who are expecting you to do a Teleport as the animation looks very similar to that move. *'Psycho Explosion - '''A Hyper version of Bison's Psycho Field, he throws a powerful Psycho Powered ball forward which explosed on impact, similar to Doom's Electric Cage. The ball will not expand unless it comes into contact with an enemy, so if the other player jumps it, nothing will happen. Name change When Street Fighter II was localized in America, Capcom was afraid of a lawsuit from Mike Tyson over a character with his likeness and a similar sounding name (Mike Bison). Additionally, when the designers presented the game to Capcom USA's marketing department, they believed that the name Vega was a weakling's name. They decided to rotate the names of three of the four boss characters in the following manner: * The boxer is known as M. Bison in Japan and Balrog elsewhere. In discussions among English-speaking players from Japan and elsewhere, he is called Boxer. * The Spanish assassin/bullfighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega elsewhere. In discussions among English-speaking players from Japan and elsewhere, he is called Claw. *The evil dictator and head of Shadaloo is known as Vega in Japan and M. Bison elsewhere. In discussions among English-speaking players from Japan and elsewhere, he is called Dictator. Trivia *He receives a slight nod in UMvC3 with one of Weskers alternate outfits being modeled after the infamous Dictator and also appears in Dormammu's ending Artwork 714414-vega.JPG|Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter 712842-vega.jpg|X-Men vs Street Fighter Sprites Also See M. Bison's moves in Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes Category:Characters Category:MvC2 Characters Category:Capcom Characters Category:Street Fighter Characters Category:Evil Alignment Category:Boss Characters Category:Male Characters Category:M. Bison Category:XMvSF Characters Category:MSHvSF Characters